Baler for sheet metal or the like



J. N. MILLER 2.237.839

BALER FOR SHEET METAL OR THE LIKE A ril 8, 1941.

Filed Dec. 10, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet l o 80 c a 23 42 22 L5 35 o o a 3i 411 2'6 ATTORNEY.

April 1941- J. N. MILLER 2,237,839

BALER FOR SHEET METAL OR THE LIKE Filed Dec. 10, 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 2April] J. N. MILLER 2,23

BALER FOR SHEET METAL OR THE LIKE Filed Dec. 10', 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 4IN VENTOR.

Patented Apr. 8, 1941 urrso res rrss'r orrios 7 Claims.

Th present invention relates to. leaders and; particularly to balers forsheet metal or the like.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a power unitwhich is capable of moving a packer in a plurality of directions for thepurposeof scraping sheet metal into the packing receptacle and for thepurpose of imparting a hammer blow action by the packer to the sheetmetal to pack. the same in the receptacle.

It is another object of the present invention to provide for forcing awedge into the receptacle to thereby cause the sheet metal to be packedagainst a wall of the receptacle.

Other and further objects and advantages will be apparent from thefollowing description, referonce being had to the accompanying drawingswherein preferred forms of embodiments of the present invention areclearly shown.

Fig. 1 is a side view of one form of the invention, showing thereceiving trough and the packing receptacle in section.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same packing receptacle and receivingtrough but on a larger scale.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line t-3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4.- is a sectional view of the packing receptacle and receivingtrough in modified form in which a wedge is also employed for packing.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional View similar to Fig. i but showing thewedge and the rear door of the receptacle in a different position.

Fig. 6 is a. top plan View of the packing receptacle shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. '7 is a rear View of the packing receptacle showing the doorclosed.

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 but showing the door open.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary sectional View of the modification shown in 4and showing scrap material being baled.

Fig. 10 is a view similar to Fig. 9 but showing as rear door open andthe bale being eiec'ted.

Fig. 11 shows still another form of the invep tion in which the entiretractor is moved for reciprocating the packer.

Fig. 12 is still another embodiment of the invention in which thereceiving trough receptacle are arcuate in shape.

Fig. 13 is a rear view of the packing receptacle shown in Fig. 12 andthe supporting frame therefor; and

Fig. 14 is a sectional view taken on line i i-24 of Fig. 13.

Referring to the drawings, a simple form of the invention includes apower driven shovel machine ill in which the packer 2| is attached bybrackets 22 to the dipper 23. This packer 2| is capable of being movedin a plurality of directions, namely, primarily, to scrap the sheetmetal into a trough 25 and the receptacle 2B and for moving the packer2| longitudinally of the trough for forcing the sheet metal from thetrough into the receptacle 26.

The receptacle 26 and trough 25 are supported by frame 28, and include abottom wall 29, opposite side walls 3!], rear wall 3|, and top side wall32. slanting walls 34 also are carried by the frames 28. The rear ofthese slanting walls 34 terminate at the front of receptacle 26. Therear wall 3| is carried by brackets 35 which arehinged on ears 36 by apin 31 and therefore the wall 3| forms a rear door for the receptaclewhich may swing rearwardly and upwardly. The door 3| is latched inclosed position by a suitable latch The power shovel includes a truck inthe form of a caterpillar tractor 4| carrying a swivel plate 42. Thecabin portion 44 and the power machinery and control machinery aremounted for swinging movement on the truck. A boom 45 is carried withthe cabin portion 44 and is held in place by guy cables or rods 46. Thedipper stick 48 carrying the dipper 23 is provided with the usual teeth49 which mesh with and are actuated by a gear 5|]. The gear 56) ismounted on a shaft 5| which also pivotally supports the dipper stick 43.The gear 5!] is rotated by the cable 52 which is connected with thepower machinery and control mechanism within the cabin M. The top of theboom 45 carries pulleys 54 and a pulley 55 is carried by the dipper 23.A cable 56 rides on pulleys 54 and -55 and is connected with the powermachinery within cabin M.

The machinery just described is the usual machinery employed in powerdriven shovels in which the dipper stick may be moved away from andtoward the boom by the gear and the dipper may be raised and lowered bythe cable 56. As is well known the power driven shovel actuatingmachinery may be swung, on the truck, in a horizontal plane. In thepresent invention the packer 2| can be swung in a horizontal directionby the swinging of the entire machinery on the truck and therefore scrapmetal to be baled can be scraped and pushed upwardly over either of theinclined walls 34 and pushed into the trough 25.. It of course will beunderstood that the dip-per stick 48 and the cable 56 will be raised andlowered so that the packer 2| can slide over or directly above aslanting wall 34. Likewise, by the use of the dipper stick 48 and thecable 55, the dipper can be extended over a considerable distance forgathering and scraping scrap metal onto the inclined wall 34.

In the preferred manner of operating the baler, a sufiicient quantity ofscrap metal to form an entire bale is first scraped into the trough 25before an attempt is made to pack the material in the receptacle 26.During this gathering of the material it may be desirable to crush thesheet metal in the trough and for this purpose the dipper stick may beraised and dropped into the trough so that substantially all thematerial of the bale is contained within the trough before the packingis started in receptacle 26. It has been found that with experience theoperator may accurately estimate the amount of material desirable tocomplete a bale. After all the material for the bale is within thetrough 25, the g packer 2| is utilized first to pushthe scrap materialinto the receptacle 26. This is clone by manipulating the controlmechanism so that the packer moves forwardly or outwardly in asubstantial horizontal plane so as to push the material in front of thesame into the receptacle. The packer is then utilized for the purpose ofimparting hammer blow action to the scrap material so as to crush andcompress the same within the receptacle 28. This is accomplished bylifting the dipper stick and the packer 2| and then'releasing the sameso that the packer will swing rearwardly on the cable 56. It will ofcourse be understood that hammer blow action may be imparted to thescrap material as it is being forced into the receptacle. The method ofpushing the material into the receptacle and the crushing and packing ofthe samedepends considerably upon the type of material which is beingbaled. After the material is in the form of a bale, the door 3| isunlatched and raised so that the bale maybe ejected through the rear ofthe receptacle and the packer may be utilized for this ejection sincethe forward part thereof is long enough to push the bale out of thereceptacle.

Under certain conditions it may be desirable to, not only employ hammerblows from the rear of the receptacle 26 but, also compress the materialfrom another angle. For this purpose I have provided a wedge 6i), thetop side of which lies substantially in a horizontal plane and in thispreferred construction the bottom wall 6| of the trough and receptacleinclines upwardly, rearwardly, as is shown in Fig. 4. Bydriving thewedge rearwardly, the depth of the receptacle is decreased as is shownin Fig. 5 andtherefore the material will be compressed between the wedge5t and the top wall 32. The wedge will be moved rearwardly forcompressing the material by imparting hammer blow actions thereto by thepacker 2| in the same manner that the packer applies hammer blow actionsto the material being baled. In this embodiment of the invention, it isdesirable to provide a sliding door'for the rear end of the receptacleand such sliding door is shownat 63. This sliding door is carried inguide frames 64 and in the present embodiment, the door slides upwardly.The door 63 rides upon the top surface of wedge 6| and is adapted toslide upwardly to accommodate the increasing taperof the wedge 6|]. Theupper part of the door is provided with a large opening 65 which isarranged to receive the forward part of packer 2| whereby the shovelmachinery may be utilized for raising the door higher inorder that thebale might be ejected through the rear of the receptacle. A frictiontype latch 61 is pivotally carried by one of the frames 64 forfrictionally holding the door in its raised position. Here again thepacker may be utilized for ejecting the bale from the receptacle 26.Such operation is shown in Fig. 10 wherein the bale is shown at 68. Itwill be noted in Fig. 10 that the wedge 60 has been withdrawn from. itspacking position shown in Fig. 5 so as to relieve the binding actionbetween that and the upper wall 32. The wedge 6|] may be withdrawn bythe packer 2|. The forward end of the wedge 60 is formed with a shoulder69 and the rear end of the packer can be manipulated to strike thisshoulder so as to withdraw the wedge 60 from its wedging position.

Preferably the packing face area of the packer 2| is smaller than thearea of the mouth of the receptacle in which the scrap materials arebaled. If the depressions and impressions left by the packer due to thehammer blow action are undesirable, the hammer blow' action may beimparted to the material through a plate 10 such as that shown in Fig.9. In this manner all the side walls of the bale will have a relativelysmooth surface. Also if desirable, the wedge 60 may be used butpreferably the plate 10 is removed before the wedge is drivenrearwardly.

The manipulation of the control mechanism of the shovel machinery may besimplified by forming the trough and receptacle in a form following anarc. Such trough and receptacle are shown at 12 and 13 respectively inFig. 12. It will be noted that the shovel or dipper 23 has been omittedin this embodiment and it of course will be understood that this dippermay be omitted in the other embodiments of this invention but when theshovel is omitted a relatively heavy packer 2| is desirable tocompensate for the weight of the dipper in order that the hammer blowswill be suificient to pack and compress the material being packed. Inthe embodiment in Fig. 12 the slanting walls 34 shown by the dottedlines, not only extend throughout the length of the trough but alsothroughout the length of the receptacle. The rear wall 14 is stationarybut the upper wall is in the form of a door 15 which is swung open tothe dotted line position during the gathering operation so that thematerial may be slid up the wall 34 and directly dumped into thereceptacle l3. In the operation of this embodiment, after sufiicientmaterial has been inserted within receptacle l3 and the rear part oftrough 12, the dipper 2| is raised and dropped upon the material so asto partly crush the same and then the door 15 is closed and held closedby a suitable latch or latches 16. The packer is then manipulatedthrough the power machinery to impart hammer blow action to the materialto compress and bale the same. It will be of course understood that thissame method of operation may be carried out in the embodiment shown inFigs. 1 and 2, that is the rear wall may be stationary, the upper wallforming a door and the slanting walls 34 which extend to the rear end ofthe receptacle 26.

If desirable a long pointed nose 18 may be formed on the packer whichnot only assists in crushing the material being packed but may beutilized as a tine for removing the bale from the receptacle 13, that isby driving the nose 18 into the bale and then lifting upwardly on thedipper stick, the bale can be lifted out of the receptacle I3.

In all of the heretofore described embodiments of this invention theunit including the supporting frames, trough and receptacle may beattached to and movable with the power driven machinery. For thispurpose, the unit is attached by rods or bars 80 to the swivel plate 42.By hooking the forward part of packer 2|, for example, under the topwall 32 of the receptacle '26, the trough and receptacle unit may beraised and swung in a horizontal plane with the cabin and machinery ormay be bodily moved when the tractor is moved. Thus the entire machinemay be moved from scrap pile to scrap pile. I

A further embodiment of the invention is shown in Fig. 11 wherein thepacker 82 is swung horizontally for scraping the material up the slanting wall 34 by manipulating the tractor 83. The packer 82 may be raisedthrough a cable M and dropped on to the material within. the trough 25or within the trough and receptacle l2 and i3 respectively of Fig. 12 soas to crush the material. In this embodiment the packing and baling isaccomplished by lowering the packer 82 into the trough 25 and thenramming the nose 85 into the sheet metal to pack the same within thereceptacle.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided a baler whichnot alone is utilized for compressing and packing the scrap material butwhich is also sufficiently mobile for gathering and scraping thematerial in position to be baled into the baling receptacle. Also theentire baling apparatus and the power unit therefor are embodied in asingle unitary structure which can be moved from place to place wherebythe baling may take place adjacent the material which is to be baled.

While the forms of embodiments of the present invention as hereindisclosed constitute preferred forms, it is to be understood that otherforms might be adopted. all coming within the scope of the claims whichfollow:

I claim:

1. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising incombination, a scrap receptacle having a movable wall and having an openside, a packing element for forcing scrap materials to be baled into thereceptacle, mechanically operated means for imparting movement to thepacking element through the open side of the receptacle and forimparting movement to the packing element for ejecting the baledmaterials out of the receptacle when the wall is removed.

2. A baler for sheet metal or the like comprising in combination, areceptacle having an open side, a wedge within the receptacle, a packerfor forcing material to be baled into the receptacle, means forimparting movement to the packer for packing material within thereceptacle between the wedge and a wall of the receptacle and forimparting movement to the wedge for packing the material toward saidwall.

3. A baler for sheet metal or the like comprising in combination, areceptacle having an open side, a wedge Within the receptacle, a packerfor forcing material to be baled into the receptacle, means forimparting movement to the packer for packing material within thereceptacle between the wedge and a wall of the receptacle and forimparting movement to the wedge for packing the material toward saidwall and for imparting movement to the Wedgel for withdrawing the samefrom the wedging position.

4. A baler for sheet metal or the like comprising in combination, areceptacle having a movable wall, a packer for packing material againstsaid wall, a wedge for packing the material against another wall of thereceptacle, said wedge being adapted to engage an edge of the movablewall and said wall being movable to accommodate the increasing taper ofthe wedge, and means for imparting movement to the packer and to thewedge.

5. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising incombination, a scrap receptacle having an opening for receiving thescrap materials to be packed, a. door for said. opening, a packingelement for crushing and pushing the scrap materials into the receptaclethrough the opening when the door is open, said receptacle havinganother opening through which the pack ing element imparts hammer blowactions to the materials in the receptacle when the door is closed, theclosed door forming a wall of the receptacle against which the materialsare packed, and mechanically operated means for actuating the packer.

6. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising incombination, a scrap receptacle open at one side for receiving thematerials to be baled therein; a packing element for forcing the scrapmaterials into the receptacle through the open side thereof; and meansfor actuating the packing element including a beam, mechanism forpivotally supporting the beam for swinging the end of the beam in aplane transversely to the open. side of the scrap receptacle, an arm,mechanism for pivotally supporting the arm on the beam, mechanism forswinging the arm about its pivot in a plane substantially at rightangles to the first mentioned plane, said packing element beingconnected to the arm, and an engine for actuating said mechanisms.

7. A baler for scrap sheet metal or like materials comprising incombination, a scrap receptacle open at one side for receiving thematerials to be baled therein; a, packing element for forcing the scrapmaterials into the receptacle through the open side thereof; and meansfor actuating the packing element including a beam, mechanism forpivotally supporting the beam for swinging the end of the beam in aplane transversely to the open side of the scrap receptacle, an arm,mechanism for pivotally supporting the arm on the beam and for movingthe arm along its pivot, mechanism for swinging the arm about its pivotin a plane substantially at right angles to the first mentioned plane,said packing element being connected to the arm, and an engine foractuating said mechanisms.

JAMES N. MILLER.

